Do ammonia chips remove ammonia in an aquarium or just convert it to something less toxic ?

Question

I have two tanks, a 29 gallon tank and 20 gallon tank. I have goldfish: one large oranda, two small orandas, a ranchu, and two lionheads. I had to move my fish with me to school in VA because I live in Florida. My tanks were all established and cycled when I was home, but when I got here I didn't want to put my fish through another cycle. Basically in one tank I'm not letting it cycle and I have all the fish in it and I'm doing 100% water changes daily. The other one I am doing a fishless cycle on (with ammonia drops). In the tank where the fish are in (they're all in the 29 gallon) I added ammo chips, but when I tested the water ammonia was still present. Does it only convert it and not remove it? If so how do I know when the chips can't absorb anymore ammonia? I just don't want my fish to have to go through a cycle and I don't know of a better way to do it. I've tried having them live in buckets and changing the water every few hours but I live In a dorm and its time consuming

Answer 1

Ammonia chips do absorb ammonia, much like carbon absorbs various contaminants. It will absrob it's capacity fairly quickly, but of course you really can't put a ppm level on that as is depends on amount used compared to tank size. All in all I have never found them to be worth the money personally.

Answer 2

ammonia chips do absorb ammonia but the zeolites can back fire after 30 days plus. on the packaging it should say change the chips out every 30 days. you can get an under gravel bio filter or a bio filter and add stress zymes, which is live bacteria which can help your tank cycle faster. there is also a bottle called cycle at the local pet store you can use. I never used it before so Im sorry i cant give you first hand advice. but i read somewhere that a cycle cant begin without fish, so add one or two little comet goldfish or a few guppies to cycle it for you. since you live in a dorm and you dont have time to change the water. i think the bio filter and stress zymes would work better for you. your local pet store can help out with a fishless cycle. good luck!!

Answer 3

The best thing to use, in my experience is to use Prime by Seachem. It converts all bad chemicals into non toxic forms so it doesnt hurt the fish. It works fast and you can add it directly to the tank if necessary. This way the carbon will remove the non toxic versions of the chemicals.

When I add prime to my water, and then test, all tests show negativie, which is good. this means that even though it is most likely still in there, it is non toxic and will not hurt the fish.

You also should try using Stability by Seachem as well. I have found seachem to be a great product for both fresh and salter water. This has the good bacteria to jump start the biological filter.

You should not be doing 100% water changes as this does not allow the bilogical system to be established and you will drive yourself crazy trying to change all that water all the time.

Also, the ammochips must be added to the filter, I dont mean to sound condicesing and you may be thinking "duh, it says it on the box" but I had to be sure, as one of my friends tried that product and would just dump it in the tank, and never knew why his ammonia was higher than normal.

Again, with Prime and Stability, you should be able to add your fish to your tank without having them die. Just make sure you keep up with adding the Prime reguarly and the Stability (per all the directions) until you notice the ammonia, nitrates and nitrites testing negative.

Answer 4

there is only one sure fire way to get rid of the amonia , water changes , and watch how much you feed for the goldfish everyother day is fine , if you are feeding flakes , a pinch is fine , but a pinch to where your sqweezing the flakes so hard in your finger that that it feels like your fingers will fall off , second goldfish naturally produce a toxic amonia , but with you changing the water so much your tank is actually cycling itself and keeps on doing so , add live bacteria to the water such as stress zyme or stability and let that get established in your water also try adding aquarium salt , that will work in conjunction with the live bacteria , all freshwater fish need some trace amounts of salt in the water , especially g-fish

Answer 5

gahh you should have brought the gravel over in a bit of water in a big rubbermaid of something, and your old filters will help cycle. The ammo chips I believe neutrilize ammonia, but dont take my word for it